Forum:Sudden rookie flood
It used to be I was surrounded by people a lot better than me, or at my level, in multiplayer. It got so bad that everybody was kill snagging constantly and I never saw a failed silver. Bought ranks were everywhere (especially after Rebellion/Resurgence). But now it's like everybody is under N7100 (I'm 837, no ranks bought). I don't mind, new players are good, we like to have a thriving community, but man, it's hard to get a match going well. Did the extended cut really bring that many new players to the table? I didn't expect it to impact sales that much. Ctrl alt belief 15:51, July 6, 2012 (UTC) Now that you mention it, you're right. I see a lot of 0-200 N7 ranks, certainly on Bronze. I wonder if there's been a price reduction recently, hence a bunch of new players. Either that or people have used up single-player and have finally turned to multiplayer. TheUnknown285 16:04, July 6, 2012 (UTC) N7 rank is not necessarily a good indicator of experience -- I play a lot of MP, but my rank is only in the low 300s because I don't promote my characters very much. But I have seen a lot of weak players recently, who have been playing poorly and generally making the game less fun. I generally do pretty well on Silver, but I can't carry a match entirely on my own! In a game just today, all three of my teammates got killed, and I had to revive all of them in quick succession; the game could easily have ended there if I hadn't been playing an Infiltrator and been able to revive while cloaked. In my case, I've seen a difference based on time of day -- evening players (western US time) are generally better than ones at other times. In general I like having new players come into the game, but they should stay on Bronze until they get good at it. Diyartifact 00:57, July 7, 2012 (UTC) Wait. I just figured it out. School's out for summer. Ctrl alt belief 08:08, July 7, 2012 (UTC) Hello guys & gals! :) First and foremost, I am glad that the Mass Effect 3 Multiplayer community is so awesome and continuing to thrive, thank you everyone for making this happend, please keep up the great work! :) As per your question "Ctrl alt belief", I think that the massive surge of new players is indeed the fact that school is out for the summer. Please understand that I am not making the following statement to have a superiority complex / be mean to anyone, but simply stating the facts. Like "TheUnknown285" said, jumping from single player to multiplayer is a big change in terms of gameplay style because the player no longer has the luxory of holding down the button to stop the action and swap guns/choose powers. As no such ability(holding down the button to decide what to do next, stopping the action of the game) exist in multiplayer, this is extremely counterproductive when it comes to learning the skills in multiplayer. As far as issues with "Silver" matches & inexperienced players go, I quite honestly have no issues with it at all and will play with anybody. I agree that other players need more training in "Bronze" as it will better facilitate the acquisition of the skills required for "Silver" and "Gold". New players will learn by playing on "Silver" too, it is just going to be tougher than needed to get those basics down with such heavy opposition. My N7 Rank is only 240. It should be A LOT higher but, I have completely abandoned the "promotion" button all together. Furthermore, there is no incentive for me to promote again because all you get is a +10 to your N7 Rank(I don't care about N7 Rank) and 75 points to your military strenght in single player(Only completed single player once. This was before the "Extended Cut DLC" came out & I will not play through it again). In other words, there is no point in me promoting characters classes. On a closing note, I definitely noticed the significant increase of players on "Bronze" and would like to take this opportunity to welcome these new players to the "Mass Effect 3 Multiplayer Community". Sincerely yours The Crazy Tactician! 12:57, July 7, 2012 (UTC) :Huh, does school actually get out this late for some kids? Colleges generally finish up in May or early June, and I don't think this is a game high school kids should be playing... Diyartifact 14:02, July 7, 2012 (UTC) ::Oh, high school and even younger kids are definitely playing Mass Effect 3 and even more violent games like Quake 4 and Mortal Kombat. TheUnknown285 14:54, July 7, 2012 (UTC) Just so everyone knows, my comments regarding the welcoming of new players to the "Mass Effect 3 Multiplayer Community" was posted under the assumption that the player(s) in question are at least 17 year old and have their parent's trust/consent to be playing this game. Furthermore, let it be known that anyone playing this game who is younger than 17 years old must have adult supervision in exchange for playing this game. I will not judge the parenting styles of individuals because it is none of my business & it is not my job. That is why the ESRB or whatever they're called provides the rating system for games. Sincerely yours, The Crazy Tactician! 15:45, July 7, 2012 (UTC) Well I personally came back after a few months of Hiatus due to running out of gold, I am rank 180 something, perhaps with all the packs and EC people are starting to come back, if only for little spells. TheRealTerminal 02:33, July 12, 2012 (UTC) I can understand where you're coming from, as I would probably be considered one of those Rookies by many. A Mass Effect Veteran for many years, an Xbox crash almost right after I completed Mass Effect 3 for the first time a few days after the release date delayed any chance I had of sampling Multiplayer before the summer holidays of University. Now with my lovely new 360, I was able to replay the campaign and finally enter the Multiplayer fray. I tend to stick with matches that suit my level, as you can almost sense the annoyance of senior players when a player with a low N7 rating enters their team (even without a mic) and I have been booted many times. While I've had my share of bad matches while adjusting to Multiplayer, I've also had some very good matches and one thing I will say about the ME3 Multiplayer community is that they really appreciate good players of any level. All you have to do is prove yourself. Like, if I have a bad match I'll usually leave afterwards if I'm in the company of senior players as I feel I've let the team down. But if I did well, you can almost guarantee that you won't get kicked because the other teammates have seen that you can hold your own. Thats why as my N7 rating grows, I'm inclined to not vote to boot rookies if they join my team until I've at least given them one match to prove themselves. Many of the best players I've played with have had sub-300 N7 rating User:An Ceannaire Hello "An Ceannaire" :) First and foremost, welcome to the Mass Effect 3 multiplayer community dude! :) In response to your comments above regarding the fact that you opt to leave the team after a bad match because you feel that you've let your team mates down, I just wanted to let you know this. "Everyone has to start from somewhere and you will make mistakes getting the skills that you will need to play on "Silver" and "Gold". Dude, you don't have to leave the game after a bad match with senior players because most of us(senior players) are very supportive of new players getting the hang of the game. I will not vote to kick out a new player so long as they are doing their best to help the team. I've been playing multiplayer since the game came out and had sessions where new players joined our team and improved while playing with us. After the 4th match, these new players became better :) From my experience, if a team of senior players don't kick you out or leave after 1 bad match, it usually is a good indicator that you're more than welcome to stay and that they know where you're coming from. I personally don't like kicking people out & I just leave so that I don't hurt their feelings. Just do your best & never give up, you'd be surprised on how understanding senior players can be" The Mass Effect 3 multiplayer community is an awesome environment for new players, but these new players need to not take getting booted out personally because the players that kicked you out are not the only players out there. Just look for another group and have fun! :) Sincerely yours The Crazy Tactician! (talk) 08:57, July 20, 2012 (UTC) :Thanks very much, man :D :I'm well aware that the Mass Effect 3 Multiplayer Community are a much more decent and accepting crowd of players than in many other online gaming communities. I guess my anxiety regarding match underperformance stems from the fact that its a long time since I was a Rookie in an online game. The only other series of games I play online in any quantity is Halo, and I've been playing that for years. I guess you get used to being good at something and being an asset to your team. :Don't worry though, I'm learning the ropes fast in ME3 Multiplayer and having great fun. As a wave-based defence game, I actually find ME3 Multiplayer better than the equivalent Firefight mode in Halo due to the fact that there is more of a context to what you are doing, those mini-objectives throughout a match really add something, there is a greater focus on team-work, and there are often moments were you really feel your back is against the wall - making victory sweeter :) --An Ceannaire (talk) 13:13, July 21, 2012 (UTC) ::I respect, and enjoy, playing with newer players. Just be honest. If you're going to spend real dollars, a word of advice: get all your classes to 20 first, so that your N7 rank actually reflects your experience. Because I cannot tell you how much I hate it when an N71000+ player comes in and sucks it up because all they did was spend money in the store. And that's really the core of the initial complaint. But yes. Rock the recruit gear (it's not so weak as it seems). Ignore the chatter. Follow orders. Revive, revive, revive. ::I don't want to seem like I'm ragging on new players, it's just suddenly the skill (not rank, skill) of the community seemed to drop. I just hope the new blood keeps it real and don't get into glitching and buying out ranks, because we need a community that stays vibrant, and not another Metal Gear Online situation. Ctrl alt belief (talk) 07:03, July 22, 2012 (UTC) :::I keep hearing about people "buying ranks," but I doubt many people are buying up to N7 1000. Full disclosure: I've spent about $20-25 in total on packs (mostly at the beginning and when new expansions came out), and to judge by the experience from rare characters, that seems to have gotten me somewhere around 50 ranks (out of ~950). If that's the usual rate, that would mean someone who bought their way up to rank 1000 would have to spend $400-500, assuming they promoted every time they hit level 20. Are there really a lot of people doing that? I haven't heard of any, but I don't spend much time on BSN.--FnordCola (talk) 12:37, July 22, 2012 (UTC) Hello guys & gals! :) I primarily play on "Silver" and go to "Gold" with a good squad group and have to agree with "Ctrl alt belief" in regards to the fact that the "recruit" gear isn't that weak as people make them out to be. You don't really need a "level 3 Armor-Piercing ammo or whatever you use" on "Silver" & "Gold". A "level 1 Armor-Piercing ammor or whatever you use" works just fine as you will be shooting your opponents like there is no tomorrow anyway. However, more powerful ammo consumables are always preferable, they are much harder to come by. From my experience, the most commonly used ammo consumables are "armor-piercing" and "disruptor". I noticed a lot of people favoring "ice" over "incindiary" from my game sessions. Just so you know, I favor "disruptor" over "armor-piercing" due to the fact that shields regenerate and armor does not. The "Recruit Pack" cost 5000 credits and it is a great way to get tons of "ammo consumables" for matches harder than "Bronze". The "Veteran Pack" cost 20,000 credits and it is a great way to acquire "character customization/XP" cards but not so great when it comes to getting "ammo consumables" because you will only pick up only 1 "ammo consumable"(as opposed to 4 from the "Recruit Pack".). The "Spectre Pack" cost 60,000 credits and it is a great way to unlock the best weapons and new characters. This is not a great source for "ammo consumables" because 1 level 3 "ammo consumable" is equivalent to 12 level 1 "ammo consumables" from the "Veteran Pack". The "Premium Spectre Pack" cost 99,999 credits and should only be used if you really, really, really want to get the best stuff in the game. Once again, this is a poor method of acquiring "ammo consumables" as you will get 1 level 4 "ammo consumable" as opposed to the 15 level 1 "ammo consumables" from the "Veteran Pack". The Crazy Tactician! (talk) 11:19, July 22, 2012 (UTC) I've never bought a rank and I never will - I just don't understand the reasoning behind it and why anyone would. As regards buying packs, I nearly always buy recruit packs when I get credits - they're invaluable for basic, but effective equipment that can really influence how you play in a match. After a Silver Match, if I had around 35,000 credits I'd always buy 1 Veteran Pack and 3 Recruit packs. I only ever buy Spectre packs after a really successful Gold match, and I don't think I've ever bought a Premium Spectre pack. I've bought a Jumbo recruit pack before, but I really don't think its worth the money, and the calibre of equipment you get never tends to be great. --An Ceannaire (talk) 11:47, July 22, 2012 (UTC) Hello again "An Ceannaire" :) Yeah, the "Jumbo Equipment Pack" definitely isn't worth it in my opinion. I would rather pick up a "Veteran Pack". I would take the remaining 13,333 credits and either save it towards a "Spectre Pack" or towards another "Veteran Pack". The Crazy Tactician! (talk) 11:59, July 22, 2012 (UTC) I agree that recruit and veteran packs are much more useful early on (a level 10 Mantis is much better than a level 1 Widow), but if you play long enough you will max out your common and uncommon weapons and mods, at which point spectre/premium spectre packs become much more appealing. There are some very useful common and uncommon weapons, but at this point I find myself playing mostly with rares (Widow, Geth Plasma Shotgun, Carnifex, etc.). That said, I don't have much use for ultra-rares: my highest level (Wraith and Paladin) are still only 4, and while the ultra-rare category include some of the best weapons in the game, they're not so great when they're level 1-4 and even your rares are level 8-10. Except the N7 Valiant, which is unreasonably good and actually competes well at level 1 with a Widow or Kishock at level 10.--FnordCola (talk) 12:50, July 22, 2012 (UTC) Welcome aboard, An Ceannaire! We're not likely to cross paths in game because I'm on another platform from you but I can only echo what other folks here have said. Most of my games are on Siver with occasional Gold but I'm happy to guide new players in Bronze, especially when I'm running up a new character who is less than level 10. By the way, I'll take this opportunity to give big thanks to Ctrl alt belief for letting me join a winning Gold team in operation broadside last week! Very gratifying to see four players who had never played together before cooperate so effectively during a tough match.Its good that most players are cooperative and supportive. The only time I've been kicked recently was a couple of days ago when I was the only player lining up for a game without one of the new N7 class characters in a Silver match. The advice other folks have given about the relative value of different equipment pack is valid and well thought out. Enjoy ME3 multiplayer, and again, welcome. Infiltrator N7 (talk) 02:47, July 23, 2012 (UTC) Having gotten back into the ME3 multiplayer scene in full force, I am looking for some regular players, preferably on Australian time, if anyone is interested,send me a message on xbox Live, RealTerminal. TheRealTerminal (talk) 03:31, July 24, 2012 (UTC) :I'd love to, and even though I play most my games around Midnight, being in Ireland doesn't really lend itself to playing with Australians :P Most people I run into are Brits or East Coast Americans. Once I get through a backlog of work thats built up, I do need to find some regular people to play with. Hardly anyone I know even has a copy of Mass Effect and Private matches are just that bit better than Public matches --An Ceannaire (talk) 22:17, July 24, 2012 (UTC) Personally, I prefer "Private Matches" over "Public Matches" as I like the consistency of skill that the "Private Matches" offer. Please understand that I love playing "Public Matches" too and definitely help/support new players to the Mass Effect 3 multiplayer community, the community of this game is awesome! You guys and gals rock! :) 50% of the time I used to play mostly "private matches" with my brother & my friend. My brother is playing "The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim" now and has completely abandoned multiplayer. My friend's Xbox Live "Gold" membership is expired and as far as I know, he will stick to Xbox Live "Silver" because he has a kid & a wife to look after; maybe he will be back on Xbox Live "Gold" some time next month, maybe? As for me, my play schedule is erratic because the fact that I'm too tired to play after work and/or I am too busy but have the energy to play. Furthermore, I definitely go for the "N7 Weekend Operations" but I'm at my best on Saturday morning after a good nights rest. I'm not as good on Fridays after work because sometimes I find myself dozing off to the point that playing multiplayer is impossible. Now, my ratio of "Private Matches" has dropped to zero. On a closing note, I've noticed that "Private Matches" seem to be significanlty less prone to lag & glitching issues. The Crazy Tactician! (talk) 00:29, July 25, 2012 (UTC) I've been playing a lot of MP recently, and I have a bit of a different take on how new players should start out. First of all, yes, the basic weapons are not bad. Your fastest route to power up your arsenal is to buy tons of Recruit Packs until your basic-tier weapons are at level X, then buy tons of Veteran Packs until your mid-tier weapons are level X. This will get you well-upgraded weapons with plenty of spare ammo and decent damage, as well as light weight that will help powers-oriented classes. During this time you'll also be gaining more skill at the game, and lucking into a few gold-tier characters as well. (While getting a single instance of a gold-tier weapon isn't necessarily very useful, getting just one card for a gold-tier character unlocks everything important for that character, gameplay-wise. The only thing that takes extra cards to unlock is the appearance customization, which is a low priority for me anyway.) Eventually you'll have most of your mid-tier stuff maxed out, at which point you should switch to the Premium Spectre Packs because they provide the most gold-tier items for your credit; just buy enough of the Jumbo Equipment Packs (and maybe Veteran Packs if you still have a few silver-tier items you haven't maxed out yet) to keep you supplied with one-time use equipment and supplies. I also really recommend playing powers-oriented classes for newer players, since they're less dependent on good weapons -- if you can get +200% cooldown, a basic human Engineer or Adept can be a force to be reckoned with on all difficulty levels, and you have access to them as soon as you start playing. Later on, when you get high upgrade levels on powerful weapons, weapon-oriented classes will become more viable. (Also, powers classes encourage good teamwork, particularly biotic classes, which always something good to practice.) In summary: upgrade by tiers, starting with low-tier items; favor well-upgraded items over high-tier ones; and favor power-oriented classes over weapon-oriented classes. Diyartifact (talk) 01:25, July 25, 2012 (UTC)